A month before the collapse of the Soviet Union, on 7th, September, 1991, as it happened each year, in Moscow there was held another demonstration devoted to the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. People of various political convictions and aspirations took their flags and posters and came into the streets. An American tourist Ray Cunningham took some photos of demonstrators and, of course, he didn’t expect how rare these shots would be in 19 years…

I have been reading alot of comments around this blog. I noticed that alot of you guys are anti Russians… I have a question why do come here and read things about Russia?? I think if you don’t like our country you should stay away and no need to care about it at all. Anyway, i find it all very funny, do you see how much we’r simillar? Don’t you find both of us are fighting to be better? Thats our history, Russian and USA are most powerfull countrys on the earth (maybe not now, cuz USSR fall), so that’s the reason of all… So guys don’t try to be smarter than enyone else, we all have our personal opinions about every thing, and belive me Russia will rise again soon, it’s only a question of a time.

And there are no Russians on ifun.ru that don’t make fun of Americans?There are good comments and bad comments on both sites.However this site would be more interesting if there was a comment rating system.

At least a few comrades are still proud of the U.S.S.R. The “idea” of Communism is close to perfect; people are flawed. But capitalism is amoral always. More people have suffered under capitalism but the church and state have convincingly brainwashed millions to believe that “some day” they will be better. Don’t tax the rich, they work hard. I’ve heard the Big Lie in all it’s irrational forms from “authorities”my whole life.

What is so perfect about establishing a dictatorship of one class while fysically eliminating all other people belonging to other classes? What is so perfect about a completely failing economical system?

The only big lie is that you know anything about what you’re saying. If Communism was that great the people would be begging for it back. Maybe it is the millions of dead bodies that keep them from wanting it back.

That is like saying that the Radical Islam and Islamic terrorism is not the same. Ask the people in Beslan how they feel about that. It goes hand in hand.

Communism set Russia back 100 years. It would have been a constitutional monarchy like England. It would have embreaced the industrial revolution and capitalism. It would have been prosperous and probably would have avoided WW2.

Mukmika, learn the Cyrillic alphabet. Sometimes words on posters are similar to words in English and if you know the alphabet, you can read the words without learning the Russian language. (Quickest way, anyway.)

Not sure you are aware of a mistake in the copy for this piece: the revolution you speak of happened on the 7th of November, not September. Thought you might want to correct it. Great photographs, thank you for posting.

in 1917 Russia still used old Julian calendar when most of other countries used Gregorian calendar, in 1917 25th October of Julian calendar was called 7th November in countries using Gregorian calendar, Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1918, but the revolution was still called “The October revolution.”

Great pictures, seeing things like this are so cool because it offers up a glimpse if but brief into another time and place. One thing I would do if I could go back in time was to see The “USSR” along with lots of other countries before the turn of the century. Awesome pictures thanks for the upload…

Interesting photos; it’s hard to believe that was 19 years ago. It’s unfortunate that the USSR and USA had such an irrational fear of each other. Both of our countries spent trillions of dollars arming for something that never happened (and hopefully never will.) I was in the US Army ’79-’91, and our whole training was based on the USSR as the potential foe. After Reagan was elected (I didn’t vote for him,) it was amazing how much money was sunk into the military.

I find it ironic that the US is now fighting the same group in Afghanistan that the USSR was. It’s even more baffling that the US once supplied arms to them. I consider it a failure of US policy and its prejudice towards the USSR. Instead of trying to needlessly arm ourselves against each other, we should have had summits about issues such as the Middle East and the other places which threaten world peace and security. We paid the price 11 Sept. 2001.

I am glad I subscribe to this website; I have learned a lot about the Russian people and their culture and arts. (Prokofiev is one of my favorite composers, among other Russians.) I have Russian friends here. I hope that our two nations will have good relations without the fears that consumed a couple of generations. I wish your nation and all its people well.

I understand what you’re saying; there was a power balance (albeit a frightening one) that existed. Yes, the clout that the USA once had has been greatly diminished. At the expense of being excoriated here, I will say that Iran’s attitude makes some sense; it’s no longer 1945 and the way modern history turned out. Times and societies have changed. It’d be nice if we could all just get along!